Everest and Damien stood outside of the cave entrance, already, the screeches of Zubat could be heard, the biggest menace in all of the world. They repopulated quickly, and were dangerous not only to humans, but Pokémon as well once they over populated an area. They were territorial, and unafraid of larger opponents.

'There is currently an over population of Zubat within the Connecting Cave, please capture, or eliminate the Zubat as you deem necessary, until further notice.' -The Pokémon Rangers.

"Is there a way to get to Cyllage, without going through the Cave?" Everest mumbled, already knowing the answer. Unless they wanted to back track all over Kalos, this would be the only way.

"It can't be too difficult... right?" As Damien spoke, he recalled Ezra, and instead let Forage and Drac out. Everest had Shawn, her newly evolved Espeon, who was very regal, but protective. Lately, he hadn't been as opposed to fighting as he had been, evolution turned out to be good for his fighting spirit.

"It's supposed to take about four days to get through the cave. We have enough rations to last twice that long, and lots of medicine, we should be okay, so long as we don't go loosing our supplies." Without another word, the pair walked in, each had a flashlight because almost immediately, darkness fell upon them, there were no breaks to the outside, where the sun could penetrate it.

"You could bring Burn out, he's like a walking flashlight." Damien whispered, careful not to shine the flashlight to the ceiling, where no doubt Zubat were hanging.

"Okay, Burn, only attack if they attack first." Speaking to the closed pokéball, it shook slightly in her grip, hopefully meaning her Pokémon understood. The moment Burn was out of his ball, the cave lit up more, allowing for the group to see in a ten foot radius.

Now that Shawn had evolved, and with Spencer in her pokéball, it was strange to no longer hold one of her friends as they walked, seeing as after their evolution, they were all to bog to hold, or stand on her shoulder, unless Spencer was using Illusion. Her hands felt oddly empty, unsure of what to do with them, she crossed her arms, then uncrossed them, before opting to pull out her Pokédex, and try to find new moves for her Pokémon, as well as what they had so far, after all the changes.

Spencer- Foul Play, Flamethrower, Agility, and Punishment.

Icee- Attract, Hail, Icy Wind, and Ice Fang

Shawn- Tackle, Quick Attack, and Confusion

Burn- Swift, Ember, Fire Fang, and Bite

Splash- Splash, tackle, and Flail

All her Pokémon now have a long range attack, (minus Splash), which she was very thankful for, seeing as that helped a lot, especially in cases like walking through a cave, full of Zubat. Trapped in her thoughts, Everest didn't even notice the Zubat until it was three feet in front of her face.

"Gligar!" Drac screeched, leaping off of Damien's shoulder, barreling into the wild Pokémon, and knocking it to the ground. That caused a chain reaction, as screeches crescendoed, and the ceiling seemed to come to life, as an almost infinite number of Zubat appeared.

"Shit. Burn, Swift and Ember, don't worry about holding back. Shawn, use Confusion." Even with her Pokémon protecting her, Everest still had to side step a few Zubat. They were creepy, with their fangs. Horror stories from her childhood bubbled up in her mind, of adventurers going into caves, only for their blood to be drank until dry by these things. And, the stories weren't even baseless. They did indeed drink blood, sometimes even human.

"Forage, use Ice Shard, aim for their wings especially. And Drac... keep doing what you're doing." The purple Pokémon was flying around at top speeds, screeching, and jumping from Zubat to Zubat, not using actual moves, but, screeching in their ears, which caused all who came into contact with Drac to run into each other and walls, as their echolocation became messed up.

"Crap." Everest ducked to the side as a Zubat came flying at her, and she promptly hit it with her bag, and the Zubat fell with a sickening crunch. Whoops. Serves them right, she wasn't completely defenseless.

After nearly seven minutes, the longest seven minutes ever to pass, Zubat became wary of the group, and stopped attacking, for now. Leaving two panting humans, and their Pokémon with some bite marks.

"Alright. Way more difficult than I thought. Come here guys, I'll patch you up." Damien and Everest decided to make camp right there, against a cave wall. While Damien began patching up a particularly nasty bite on Burn's flank, (which he didn't even look to be bothered by, since he was chasing his tail) Everest began working on pitching a tent. Usually they didn't bother with tents, unless it was raining, but with all these bats sleeping above them, no way was she about to sleep exposed. Okay, they managed to make it... not even an hour the first day. She may have underestimated the cave system, Everest realized. Oh well, this was going to be an experience she wouldn't back down from, you grew stronger from these things, so long as you made it through, that is.

**DEDRF**

Damien and Everest sat around a campfire later that day, each had their Pokédex out, trying to find the best way to get through this cave system. No way was a horde of Zubat going to prevent them from getting their next badge.

It was then, that Everest received a call.

"Hello?" It was little staticky, considering they were within a cave system, but nonetheless, it crackled to life after a moment.

"Hey, it's Howe. Are both of you there? Wanted to tell you two about the Rocket, finally gave up some information." The ranger's voice broke through the static, sounding much more chipper than the last time they had seen him.

When Everest and Damien had called the ranger station to report the Rockets in the daycare, the agent hadn't been so keen on revealing info to the authorities, and Howe was not happy. But, he had promised to update them on any information he managed to learn, considering they had enough grounds to at least keep the Rocket locked up.

"Yep, we're here Howe, what do you know?" Damien moved closer, so he could talk into the receiver without being loud, and risking another Zubat attack. Burn laid by Everest's feet, warming them up, while Shawn sat off to the left, his eyes glowing blue, which Everest wasn't quite sure what that was all about yet. Drac was overhead somewhere, screeching, claiming his territory, and Forage was sleeping soundly.

"So, apparently, the Rockets are pulling quite a bit of cash from this operation." He began, his northern Kalos accent slipping in a bit. "Of course, they're paid to watch and level up Pokémon, but, any eggs that they find from all the Pokémon, they either keep for their ranks, or they sell." His voice was dangerously low, and the idea nauseated her.

Who knows how many they have managed to steal and sell, separating Pokémon from their eggs can be harmful to the parent Pokémon, as well as the new babies. Sure, she had gotten Icee from an egg, but that was because the parent had passed away.

There were laws against selling of Pokémon eggs, as well as mass breeding. Who knows how many laws team rocket broke in the one daycare alone, and how many of their illegal operations were funded by that place? She had seen the hefty prices on the sign in the daycare.

"Are there other daycares? Ones that are run by Rocket?" As he spoke, Damien's knuckles turned white, he was ready to punch someone, not that Everest could deny her own anger.

"We're investigating that now. So far, no word of any connected daycares in Kalos. We sent info to the other regions, but haven't heard back yet. You two did a great job, figuring this one out-" Noise in the background broke Howe off, most likely another ranger. They sat in silence for a few moments, waiting for Howe to return. "I've got to go, but, like I said, nice job. You two be careful in the Zubat Roost." And he was gone, line dead.

"I don't care if we caught them, that shouldn't have been an operation from the start." She was angry, no doubt about it, to even think they managed to operate a seemingly 'normal' business, no questions asked? That two new trainers had to come across it? It seemed ridiculous.

"Who knows where else they are. Just sitting there, waiting." Damien ran his fingers through Forage's fur, as he recalled the event that brought them together. What awful thing were they going to do next? The trainers had no idea what was coming, in fact no one did.

**ESIBSS**

There were three more Zubat attacks over the next two days. Each one was smaller than the last, thankfully. They seemed to get the picture that Everest and her friends weren't ones to mess with. Luckily ice and psychic types were powerful against Zubat, so it worked out. So farm the group hadn't even seen any other wild Pokémon.

Just as they were deciding to pack up, and set up the tent for the night, they heard weak cries for help. They took off running, obviously.

"Charrrr." They turned the corner, only to find a Charmeleon standing guard in front of a kid, not much older than themselves, trying to fight off an entire horde of Zubat.

"Shawn, use Confusion!" Everest saw numerous bite marks on the kid, as well as his fire-type, no doubt the Zubat were to blame. It wasn't really their fault, it was in their nature, and in a place like this, where there was little prey, they went crazy, trying to secure food. Aka, by overpowering trainers.

"Forage, use ice shard!" It only took a couple of the Zubat to go crashing to the ground before the horde took off, with one taking a final swoop, trying to attach to Charmeleon. Making a split second decision, Everest threw a pokéball at it.

The Pokémon, which was probably weakened by hunger, and possibly by attacks from Everest and Damien, didn't even put up a fight, and the ball fell to the ground, it was caught.

"Hey, you okay there?" Everest walked over to the stranger, holding her hands up in surrender as the Charmeleon growled at them.

"Y-y-Yes. Thank you. I...We... that was too close." He panted, eyes wide with adrenaline. "Thank you." With one hand, she picked up the new Pokémon, her other, she dug in her bag to find her potions and berries,

"Here, I've heard that if you have a Zubat of your own, others will leave you alone." She placed the ball into his hands, and his eyes went wide. She next, gave him a few berries, and pulled out a few bandages from her bag.

"I'll fix up your Charmeleon for you, I'm Damien by the way." He had a deep gouge on his arm, which would need medical attention as soon as he got to the nearest town. But, Pokémon medicine would do for now.

"Thank you, so much, I'm Aidan." His head fell back, breathing out a sigh of relief, before he looked at Shawn and Forage.

"My name is Everest, this is Shawn, and that's Forage." Pointing to each member of the party respectively, she finished taping Aidan up. "Are you going to Cyllage too?"

"No, coming from there actually. Just got the gym badge too. Do you know how far Camphrier is?" She helped him to his feet, and he winced as he moved his arm awkwardly to catch himself on the wall.

"We came from there, two days to get out of the cave, another one to get through route 7. Although, I could give you the number of a Ranger, to pick you up so they can fix you up." Damien offered after a moment, getting out his communicator.

After exchanging both Ranger numbers, as well as their own, Charmeleon and Aidan looked much healthier. Before he left them to go the other direction, he turned around, digging in his pockets.

"This is a thank you, from me. I'll see you guys around." And he was gone. They opened the small brown packages, looks like the kid had just gotten them himself, as they unwrapped the protective packaging. Inside Everest's, was a very expensive silver spoon, almost perfect, except it was bent almost in half. Confused, she peered over Damien's shoulder, to find he had a long, barb, with purple ooze at the bottom.